I think it's more moddable in the sense that you can alter game logic aspects. Although I do think Fyron is selling SE:V a bit short in terms of the game's amount of modability.

But back on topic:

Unfortunately work on the balance mod didn't start soon enough for it to be considered a replacement for the current default data files. I'm still hoping it might be in the future, but I think it's more likely that it might be included as an extra on a Deluxe release etc. The good thing about the internal mod launcher is that it makes just as easy to choose a mod as the standard game...

SE5 is certainly much more moddable than SE4, but you can't say SE5 is one of the most moddable strategy games like you could say of SE4 when it came out... Comparing modifying static text files with a little tiny bit of scripting (events and AI) to being able to program in entirely new types of game logic in any portion of the game engine is apples and oranges. You can't really alter the logic in the game engine in SE5.

Don't worry Kwok, this'll be my last post on this in this topic.

Ed Kolis said:
...Fall from Heaven mod for Civ4?

Make sure to get the FFH2 version, not version 1. FFH2 adds spellcasting, oh my! There is a Genetic Era mod for Warlords that, amongst other things, adds the ability to colonize sea terrain (late in the tech tree, but still). Sure, CTP did it first, but at least it can be "modded" in to Civ4 with the DLL SDK. There are all sorts of nifty little features that various people have made. Check out the Core Community Project for a sampling of them; it's an attempt to get a standardized DLL that different mods can use. There is a mercenaries mod, which adds a way to recruit mercenary units for gold. The Star Wars mod being developed uses it, for one.

Here's a quote from a Strategy First press release: (from Aaron, I'm sure)

“We here at Malfador Machinations are very excited that “Space Empires V” is finally available for purchase. We’ve put a lot of work into this game, but the work hasn’t stopped. We continue to work with our beta testers and plan on releasing improvements October 16th, 2006!”

Guess we can look for the first patch then.

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Imperator Fyron said:
The data is stored in XML files (which you can add new tags to via hooks in the SDK), a lot of the game scripting is done in python files you can change, and much of the core game logic is in a C++ DLL file that there is a SDK for. Almost the entire game can be modified. It's approaching an open source app in terms of how alterable it is.

Which actually puts it beyond the reach of most of us.

I modded my own Civ I via hex-editing the game files, but actually accomplished a fair amount (tech tree, etc...) following pretty simple instructions widely available on the BBS pre-Internet of the time.

I modded the crap out of Civ II - that was truly easy to mod. I created wads of my own unit graphics, etc... The engine had its issues, but it was sure easy to mod the tech tree & units.

Civ III was moderately easy to add stuff rolled up by high-enders, but the learning curve for rolling my own units was too steep for my available time (gainfully employed professional with wife & two pre-pubescent kids). So, I just collected units toward the goal of having tribe-specific graphics for all units in all tribes.

Civ IV - fuggidaboudit! A tutorial for what you have to do to add a unit that somebody else rolled makes my eyes glaze over... The Civ III goal lives in spirit (my 3rd grade daughter has developed an interest in this sort of thing, and I'd love to give her the Civ IV of my dreams), but I can't see myself sorting it out...

As to SEV, frankly I love the modability of the data, but I tried my hand as doing flags today and didn't like my results - 3D ship models are clearly beyond my capabilities. So, I'm going to be relying on you high-enders to give me some good stuff!